For over four decades, experimental noise-rock titans Swans have been crafting their distinctively uncompromising and mind-melting brand of all-consuming sonic cacophony, consistently delivering compelling results. And as impressive as the band’s highly expansive and varied discography (which currently stands at 17 studio albums and counting) has been over the years, witnessing the remarkable intensity of Swans in a live setting has often been an inexplicably profound (some might say transcendental) experience for many fans.
Which is what made their sold-out performance at the Metro in Chicago on September 30th, 2025, a particularly hot ticket, considering that a few months back, Michael Gira stated this tour would be “the last chance to experience this expansive sound and ensemble.” Indeed, after making his intentions clear that future iterations of Swans would likely be significantly stripped down, the opportunity to experience the massive wall-of-sound version of the band, possibly for the final time, added an extra element of anticipation and gravitas to the proceedings.
And “gravitas” would probably be the most apt term to describe Swans’ performance, as the sheer force and volume of the band often felt downright gravitational in its intensity throughout their consistently enthralling 2+ hour set Tuesday night. Granted, it’s not like Swans bludgeon you to death like it’s 1985 anymore, as the band’s sound has, of course, evolved significantly over the years to incorporate more dynamics, nuance, but perhaps most importantly: suspense. Case in point was their opening number, “The End of Forgetting,” which started out sounding like the aural equivalent of watching the sun rise from space, while steadily building in intensity/tempo before ultimately swelling into a massive, all-consuming crescendo that felt like you were being sucked into a pulsar by the end of it.
And that was just the first song, which, mind you, probably lasted upwards of 20 minutes by the time it was all said and done. Suffice to say, it made a more than emphatic impression and did a fantastic job setting the tone for all the mind-bending aural intensity to come. The band continued on that front in earnest, which was always markedly captivating to watch, considering it often felt like Swans were operating on a telekinetic level during their sprawling jam sessions.
And the guiding light throughout those epic sonic forays was, of course, Michael Gira, whose non-verbal cues and gestures served as both the conduit and conductor for the band’s all-encompassing, visceral sound. In addition to his inherently stern and imposing stage presence (which frequently found him intensely staring down some of his band members as they jammed away), Gira would often lose himself in the music, closing his eyes intently while performing, or flailing his arms wildly and dancing on stage with the fervor of a cult leader who had just drank some potent snake venom.
But as unhinged as Gira may have seemed at times, such compulsions felt fully justified during performances of “The Merge,” for example. With the help of Dana Schechter, who added another wickedly groovy and powerful bass guitar to the mix, the band conjured up a truly intoxicating, almost tribal-flavored sonic swirl that had most of the crowd hypnotically nodding and grinding away to the relentlessly rhythm-heavy intensity of the music.
And that rhythm-heavy intensity was a consistent and notable feature during most of the band’s performance Tuesday night, which helped give their patented monolithic wall-of-sound approach a bit more form and variety overall. This was particularly true when Swans treated the audience to a performance of “A Little God in My Hands,” which garnered the most enthusiastic and kinetic reaction from the crowd that night. And how could it not, really, especially considering the off-kilter (dare I say funky) rhythm of the song sounded outright pulverizing in a live setting. And, of course, the sinisterly explosive, psych-flavored dissonant surge that rears its head at certain points throughout the song practically melted everyone’s collective faces off in a live setting (much to our delight).
After all the blistering and overpowering sonic intensity that characterized the evening, Swans slowly wound things down throughout their final number, “Newly Sentiment Being”. In addition to busting out his harmonica at one point, like a pilot executing a perfect landing, Gira did a brilliant job methodically directing the band as a whole down in intensity and tempo as the song came to a close, ending the night on a decidedly blissful and somewhat delicate note. It effectively felt like closure, in a way, for the consistently compelling sonic journey Swans had taken everyone on over the past two-plus hours.
There was a certain beauty to that, which perfectly encapsulates the essence of Swans’ music as a whole. As Gira himself once put it many years ago: “Swans are majestic, beautiful-looking creatures. With really ugly temperaments.” Suffice to say the parallels in Swans music are palpable, but over the years those “really ugly temperaments” have evolved into something truly remarkable and profound, which is apt description for the band’s performance overall Tuesday night at the Metro.
If this really was the last Swans performance in Chicago featuring this incarnation of the band, suffice to say it was a truly epic way to go out.
